L'HEREU ESCAMPA - "Futur Ancestral" (Hidden Track Records / Beauty Fool Records, 2022)

 

Futur Ancestral (Hidden Track Records / Beauty Fool Records, 2022) es el tercer álbum de L'HEREU ESCAMPA, banda formada por Guillem Colomer (batería y voz) y Carles Generó (guitarra y voz). Completa en esta ocasión la formación power trio Ildefons Alonso (bajo y teclados), que participa en bandas como El Petit de Cal Eril, La Sentina o Valentina & The Electric Post, a cargo ahora de la producción, grabación y mezcla del disco.

En su nueva referencia notamos que han mitigado las guitarras distorsionadas rebajando considerablemente la intensidad power-pop / emo-punk de antaño para habitar en terrenos más serenos y sosegados, conservando intacta la vertiente más "emo". Este proceso evolutivo se muestra desde el arranque de Futur Ancestral con la delicadamente aleccionadora "Un altre dia". Nos recomienda el vivir el aquí y el ahora, a lo que me apunto a pie juntillas, sobre todo si podemos disfrutar de este gustoso corte plenamente, focalizando la atención al modo Mindfulness. De hecho el título del trabajo ya delata intenciones con esa evidente discordancia entre las dos palabras.

Foto de Jordi Daví

Con la nostálgica "Bicicleta i natació", como curiosidad incluye el nombre del grupo en su lírica, la guitarra eléctrica parece querer sacar sus uñas pero la cosa se queda en unos arrumacos bien placenteros dentro de otro espléndido corte del dúo.

La guitarra acústica pide paso en "Perafita" (videoclip insertado a pie de página) y de qué manera. Al riff inicial en la estrofa se le suman los certeros rasgueos para presentar el estribillo y durante este, se sigue gustando, con la compañía del bajo y la mirada cómplice de una batería que ejerce de pulso para una canción arrebatadora.

Del hechizante break en el ecuador de "Pell Daurada", del que salimos reforzados cogidos de la mano de un referente bajo, a la rampa de salida perfecta que resulta "Febre i remeis", sobretodo en su vigoroso ocaso, para regresar al lado punk de L'HEREU ESCAMPA con "Perseverança". En esta última se expone una contienda interna por madurar, por llegar a ser literalmente "una persona decente". ¿Lo conseguirán?

SEQUOIA - "Vint-i-pocs" (La Catenària, 2022)

La banda SEQUOIA son Víctor Llonch, Edu Vilardaga y Ramon Pedret, unos amigos que a los 18 años se animaron a coger la guitarra y tocar en las calles de Barcelona. Van funcionando como formación desde finales de 2019 y acaban de publicar debut discográfico, "Vint-i-pocs" (La Catenària, 2022).

Su propuesta musical está orientada al indie-folk o lo-fi de raíz americana de gente como Sufjan Stevens o Angelo De Augustine, haciéndose más evidente en los cortes del álbum cantados en inglés "Not a Word", "Let's Sail To The Unknown" y "Under the Water".

 
Historias sobre su círculo más cercano y vivencias propias, contadas desde la perspectiva de quien va creciendo en edad y en experiencias, exhibidas de manera sugestiva y delicada. Todo esto contiene Vint-i-pocs con canciones tan dulces como la que arranca el trabajo "Un Hivern Molt Llarg" (videoclip insertado a pie de página), con la aparición, lo harán en más pasajes del álbum, del trombón y la trompeta. O su consecutiva, la nostálgica con desarrollo en sutil in crescendo "Van Ser Molts Anys".

"El Temps Dirà" es la más sorprendente del disco con un pop electrónico que te hará incluso bailar a partir de su primer minuto de metraje. Otros momentos álgidos del trabajo son el corte melancólico con regusto blue-grass "Jove Maria" y el cierre del mismo, con el progresivo y extenso corte titular "Vint-i-pocs". Cuidado con él porque sus seis minutos van mutando de la ternura y sosiego a terrenos más cadenciosos y crápulas.

BIGOTT - "This is All Wrong" (2020)

BIGOTT (Borja Laudo) se reafirma en la hiperactividad mostrada en estos últimos tiempos yendo a disco por año publicando This is All Wrong (2020). La misma frecuencia que aplicara con los estupendos Friendly Monster's (Drácula Records, 19) y Candy Valley (Grabaciones en el mar, 18).

Borja parece como si tuviera prisa, tanto por la rapidez con la que lanza nuevo material como por la duración de los mismos. Sus cuatro discos más recientes han rondado todos los veinte minutos, como si queriendo ir un paso más allá de al grano. De esta manera y en el mayor breve espacio de tiempo recoge todo su potencial noise-pop junto a un surrealismo lírico y porte socarrón marca de la casa.

BIGOTT reivindica su lado más naíf ja desde la portada e inyecta heterogeneidad a su propuesta con el inquietante regusto jazzístico de "Sex is Dirty?"; la instrumental que pudiera formar parte de la B.S.O. de un spaghetti western del siglo XXI "Don't Call Satan"; y la muy Beastie Boys "Pollo Loco", con el rapeo incluidode su productor el californiano Izak Arida.

El esplendido arranque de álbum con la luminosa con cierto halo nostálgico "I Love Monkeys", su estribillo resulta arrebatador; "This is All Wrong" con un marcado contraste entre su lírica, tan escueta como deprimente, y sus balsámicas notas; la juguetona "Glitter Boy", o como asociar de manera natural distorsión guitarrera con ligero du duá; y la sentimental al modo BIGOTT "Can U See", de esas que te dejan con la típica media sonrisa de satisfacción después de su escucha. Al igual que sucede con "Tripping Song", un medio tiempo ensoñador que te hará derretir del gusto.

Foto extraída de la fanpage de Facebook de BIGOTT

Se avecina cierre primoroso de This is All Wrong con el tridente formado por: "Astral Cat" o una tierna carta de amor a un minino hecha canción, la evocadora melancolía de "Angels & Appels" y la delicadeza acústica de "No Worries".

BIGOTT - "Friendly Monster's" (Drácula Records, 19)

BIGOTT (Borja Laudo) es un espíritu libre y lo sigue transmitiendo de manera natural también en Friendly Monster's (Drácula Records, 19). Condensa en sus veinte minutos de duración todo el muestrario del maño: descaro y frescura alineados con sonidos noise-pop que te teletransportan a la costa noreste americana de bandas como Yo la Tengo o Dinosaur Jr. Eso si, pasado por el filtro del que se sabe con una personalidad y peculiaridad única en el mundillo.

El arranque "Dreaming" es una maravilla pop. Evocadora, de las que se quedan adheridas sin poder, ni querer en este caso, que se te despegue. Luego nos sobrevienen dos escuetos cortes, gemelos en su duración aunque disonantes en su contenido; "I Lov U" es una declaración de amor directa, al grano, tenemos minuto y medio para ello y no lo desaprovechamos; la segunda, "Sweet Sweet Bang Bang" resultando inquietante, bipolar como su título. Unos crudos raspeos guitarreros por lo bajini intensifican dicha sensación.

"Release" demuestra una vez más la versatilidad y capacidad de sorpresa de BIGOTT. Un corte que empieza con un reposado instrumental cercano al nu-jazz, derivando en su ecuador hacia el lo-fi más lánguido. También hay momento para la sensualidad en Friendly Monster's con "Baby". Sugerente, con un riff funky de guitarra tan persistente como efectivo.

Nos cruzamos E.E.U.U. de costa a costa para aterrizar en la californiana con el tenue surf  de "The City of Love". Resistirse a su encanto no es una opción.

El ensoñador cierre "Lost in the Universe", con diferencia la más extensa del conjunto con sus cuatro minutos en forma de collage sonoro, despidiendo de forma arrebatadora un álbum estupendo. Otro más en el haber de Borja.

BIGOTT - "Candy Valley" (Grabaciones en el Mar,18)

Después de publicar un disco tan espléndido como My Friends are Dead (Grabaciones en el Mar, 16), medalla de bronce en nuestro Top Estatal 2016, se atisbaba complicado generar nuevo material que se comportara como digno sucesor.

Borja Laudo, oseasé BIGOTT, cumple con el objetivo con Candy Valley (Grabaciones en el Mar, 18), ya desde su portada, entre nostálgica y naif, convirtiéndolo en un disco que entra por los ojos. Aprovecho para reivindicar la importancia de carátula con gancho, lo que puede ayudar sobremanera en provocar la escucha de su contenido e incluso la compra en formato físico.

BIGOTT sigue la línea de sus dos anteriores álbumes; esencia lo-fi con grandes dosis de pop bonachón y actitud desaliñada. Dicho así parece poco, además Candy Valley dura escasos 20 minutos. Y entonces surge la magia, Borja coge la barita y condensa el máximo talento en el menor espacio de tiempo posible.

Las dos iniciales "Strangers by the Wall" y "Don't Know Why", sendas gominolas popies, nótese el guiño nada forzado que le dedico al título del álbum😉; la funky y adictiva "Don't Stop the Dance" (clip a final de post), una grata sorpresa, ultra bailable, aquí si que el rótulo lo dice todo; "Atmosphere", la más cruda del conjunto, con esas guitarras distorsionadas de fondo, como queriendo cargar el ambiente. 

Volvemos a la benevolencia pop con "Take it Easy", deliciosa se queda corto; recuperamos aires funkies, aunque esta vez más bien lánguidos, con "Movin'  on"; el impás instrumental "No Farelo" nos conduce hacia el tramo final de Candy Valley. La delicadeza con sabor surfero "Walk in the Hood", una de mis favoritas, otra golosina tamaño saco de Chupa Chups XXL, sigo sembrado con las analogías; y la vaporosa "Stranger Eyes", con un toque psicodélico para aderezarla, despidiendo de manera plácida este estupendo trabajo.

THE STANDBY CONNECTION - "Ace tone" (Discos de Paseo, 17)

La banda valenciana POLAR (1994-2011) renace ahora como THE STANDBY CONNECTION y con nuevo trabajo, el álbum Ace Tone (Discos de Paseo, 17). Canjean la batería por una caja de ritmos analógica de los años sesenta, la Ace Tone, adquiriendo tanto protagonismo como para dedicarle el título del trabajo.

Será por la madurez adquirida, la nueva base rítmica mecánica, las ganas por la experimentación o porqué simplemente les haya pegado por ahí. El ahora trío (Paco Grande, Miguel Martínez Matallín y Jesús Sáez) han mutado hacia sonoridades cercanas al lo-fi, sin perder ni un ápice su simpatía por las melodías.

Estamos ante un disco debut, por llamarlo de alguna manera, mayúsculo. Con reminiscencias al Lou Reed más íntimo con la desangelada "Wounded", la punzante "Lost" o la definitiva, en todos los sentidos, "It's Over". A unos Yo la Tengo más cadenciosos y directos de lo habitual con "With You", la más inmediata del conjunto (videoclip insertado a pie de página), o la melancólica "When You Turn Away". Unos Guided by Voices tirando a austeros con la edulcorada "Hiro" o la solemne "Rain". Incluso filtreando con la psicodelia como en la maravillosa "Crawling Out of Bed", mostrando el amplio nivel de recursos de una banda en estado de gracia.

Ace Tone es disfrutable de principio a fin, con ese ocaso en forma de personalísima version del "A Baby for Pree" de los Neutral Milk Hotel.

DETERGENTE LÍQUIDO - "Mirad lo que me habéis hecho hacer. Por favor" (Discos de Paseo, 17)

DETERGENTE LÍQUIDO llevan el azul del mar de la costa gaditana en la sangre y lo muestran repitiéndolo en la portada de su segundo largo Mirad lo que me habéis hecho hacer. Por favor (Discos de Paseo, 17). 

Quitando la similitud en el tinte de la portada y en la longitud del título con el anterior Ponte en lo peor. Llámame el lunes (Discos del Rollo, 15), muchas cosas han cambiado en estos dos últimos años. Empezando por cambio de vocalista y acabando por la inclusión de arreglos melódicos dentro de una producción más detallista enriqueciendo su propuesta inicial próxima al lo-fi. 

Grabado y masterizado en Grabaciones Sumergidas (El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz) y producido por Juan A. Mateos, Ernesto Rodríguez y Alberto Rodway.

El pop sigue siendo su seña de identidad, esta vez más costumista si cabe, a través de 12 canciones de escucha más que placentera gracias a cortes como sus dos primeros singles, la luminosa "Grimas y meriendas" y la melancólica "El cantante de boleros"; la bailable "El amor en la era del Aliexpress"; las power-pop "Gennaro Gattuso", "Las farolas de la autopista" y "Demasiado bruto para el indi";  la pizpireta "Poesía eres tú, Robocop"; las deliciosas "Hay gente haciendo cola para lavar el coche", "¿Dónde entras tú?" y "Loopstation"; y el cierre lapidario "Aversión".

PRIMOGÉNITO LÓPEZ - El Material (Discos de Paseo 2015)

En 2006 nace en Sant Feliu de Llobregat (Barcelona) PRIMOGÉNITO LÓPEZ de la mano de David López (guitarra, teclados, bases) y Jose -Petete- (voz, guitarra). Más tarde se les unirían Jordi Viloca al bajo y Josep María García -Paia- a la bateria. En 2011 plasman sus primeras composiciones en el EP homónimo, erigiéndose como un debut discográfico destacado.

Lo que parecía, y de echo sigue pareciéndonos, una formación ultra lo-fi, donde las canciones parecen en ocasiones inacabadas; actitud cercana al punk junto a esa voz desaliñada tan característica; no hace más que aumentar exponencialmente su magnetismo, avisamos que sin retorno posible por parte del afortunado que escuche su trabajo.

Ese regusto a Los Planetas (en "Sala Iberia" por ejemplo) pasado por el turmix post-punk de Joy Division ("El mestral" y "Capitán Cortés") y el lo-fi añejo de los primeros Yo la tengo ("La orden de Santiago"), enmarcaría a groso modo el sonido de PRIMOGÉNITO LÓPEZ. Ahora además los vemos jugueteando con la electrónica ("Einheit Spanischer Freiwilliger" y "La vanguardia"), como podemos apreciar en algunos pasajes de El Material (Discos de Paseo 2015), su recién estrenado primer largo.

Made In America - ARVID, "Old Factory Living" (2014)

I was more than presently surprised when I recently came across the new album by Rochester, NY artist Arvid, "Old Factory Living". At the same time I was a little angry at myself for missing it's release over the spring.

Luke Ross, who records under the name Arvid, previously released a digital album under the name Fuzz Daniels last year. With Fuzz Daniels and now under Avrid, Ross's leanings are clearly toward the 90's lo-fi/alternative set, which suits my ears just fine. With tinges of Built To Spill and late era Pavement or solo Stephen Malkmus sprinkled throughout, Avrid has managed to make his influences his own and has turned out a very nice album.

Made In America - LUBEC, "The Thrall" (2014)

Lubec, Maine is the easternmost point in the United States. Lubec, the band, from Portland, Oregon, which is about 3,000 miles due east on the opposite coast, writes dreamy, textural songs that blur the lines between shoegaze and noise-pop. Atmospheric with swirling harmonies and hook-heavy melodies, their songs make their way deep into your bones. Not unlike the cold damp winters of the band's namesake city.

Keyboardist Caroline Jackson, guitarists Eddie Charlton and Nick Laurich, and drummer Matt Dressen make up the four-piece that formed in 2011. Caroline, Matt, and Eddie share vocal duties and at times come together with these layered harmonies that really highlight the band's abilities and puts them on par with some of the great predecessors of the genre. The Thrall is sure to be one of those albums that will helps me get through the upcoming winter.

Made In America - UNITED WATERS, "Sunburner" (2014)

As half of industrial experimental duo Mouthus, Brooklyn-based guitar destroyer Brian Sullivan has been crushing eardrums since the early 2000's. In 2011, Sullivan went solo as United Waters and released his debut record Your First Ever River via Arbitrary Signs. With Chris Shields and Patrick Cole rounding out the trio, United Waters have recently released their follow-up, Sunburner, through Bathetic Records.

As densely layered as Mouthus was to the industrial and experimental world United Waters seems at first to be the polar opposite. Lo-fi, subdued and distant, but hypnotizing in the same way Sullivan's music has been in the past, but this time the entrancement creeps up on you and you don't realize you're in it until you're in it. Listening, I'm instantly transported to a steamy New York summer night. Too hot to sleep, the city sounds muddled deep in the background which seem clamorous at first but as you keep listening soon become recognizable.

Made In America - BIG UPS, "Eighteen Hours Of Static" (2014)

New York band Big Ups have been building up to their full-length debut Eighteen Hours Of Static, out on Tough Love/Dead Labor Records, over the past few years now. The heavy handedness of this album evokes the post-punk and hardcore era of bands like Fugazi and Black Flag and maybe some later-years Minor Threat. It certainly brings me back to those salad days. Lead singer Joe Galarraga skillfully switches between melodic singing and full out rant mode, the "loud-quiet-loud" modus operandi of the aforementioned bands, but the influences don't seem as direct as it is me automatically looking for bands to compare them to.

Made In America - CONNECTIONS, "Body Language" (2013)

Being prolific in the music business is no easy task, well, it's no easy task for most. Look at Frank Zappa's sixty plus albums during his career, and I've still only listened to Freak Out! and maybe one of the fifteen albums he released posthumously. So I should really change my opening to something along the lines of being a music factory is one thing, turning out quality product worth a listen is the difficult part.

Columbus, Ohio's Connections are off to a pretty good start. Seven months detached from their debut album Private Airplane, Connections are back with their second effort Body Language, out on Anyway Records. They are also rumored to be studio bound to begin work on a third album to be released some time in the new year. That's a lot of music in such a short time but Connections seem to be on top of their quality control department.

Made In America - Gross Relations (2013)

Teasing us over the last two years with the Raven Sings The Blues EP and the Fuzzy Timelines 7", Brooklyn-based five-piece Gross Relations have finally released their excellent self-titled debut LP via Old Flame Records. Throughout the 10 song album Gross Relations manages to connect the dots between lo-fi and full-on garage pop in all of it's distorted glory. With fuzzy guitars, layered synthesizers, crooning vocals, and ridiculously infectious hooks the entire album will have you shuffling your feet from beginning to end.

Start with "Discovery Zone" and "Cut The Final Scene", watch the video for "Fuzzy Timelines" and then listen to the whole album around 100 times in a row like I did.

Made In America - Speedy Ortiz, "Major Arcana" (2013)

In 2012 singer/guitarist Sadie Dupuis started writing songs under the name Speedy Ortiz after the breakup of her band Quilty. She quickly recruited Matt Robidoux (guitar), Mike Falcone (drums) and Darl Ferm (bass) to round out a band and released the promising five-track Sports EP on Exploding In Sound Records. 

The sound of the Massachusetts based band is heavily steeped in 90s sludgy lo-fi alternative. Dupuis crafts songs like Pavement's Stephen Malkmus, part poetry, part angular journey that gets you from point A to point B in the most unexpected ways but still manages to keep you fastened in the whole way. Dupuis once fronted an all-female Pavement cover band called Babement.

2013 brought the release of their official debut Major Arcana on D.C. based Carpark Records. Dupuis proves that she can wax poetic with the best of them but with the help of producer Justin Pizzoferrato (Dinosaur, Jr., Chelsea Light Moving) the songs sport a more mature sound that harkens the heydays of Sonic Youth and Sebadoh. Speedy Ortiz has been showing up on many "best new music" lists around the interwebs this year and rightly so. So dig out your best holy blue jeans and flannel shirt and enjoy.

Made In America - Heavy Times, "I'm Single" 7" (2013)

I like to think that I have a decent handle on new music but in this day and age with so many bands self-releasing music on the internet sometimes good bands just slip through the cracks. Chicago's Heavy Times are one of those bands that I completely missed the boat on, and shamefully so because they are right up my ally.

Lo-fi garage rock with pop tendencies is as close as I can get to describing Heavy Times whose sound really doesn't fit into any one category and you can't do a band like this justice by pigeonholing them. If I had to draw comparisons to other bands I would immediatly go to Guided By Voices and Husker Du who share two common traits in their songs, melodic driving guitar riffs and monster choruses that will eat you alive.

Heavy Times released their debut album Dead on Rotted Tooth Recordings in 2010 and their breakout record Jacker, released on Hozac Records, the following year. Their latest, I'm Single, a three song 7", also out on the Hozac lable, defines their sound nicely and keeps you believing that Heavy Times are destined for something bigger. The closing song "Bath Salts" just might containg the catchiest guitar hook I've heard in years. Listen to it and you'll be instantly addicted like I was.

Heavy Times - Skull Hair - From the album Jacker

Made In America - TV Girl, "Lonely Women" EP (2013)

Pop music can often be tricky and confusing. As a genre, it is very eclectic, often borrowing elements from other styles of music like rock, country, urban and dance. Nonetheless, there are core elements, like a melodic tune and catchy hooks, which define the genre. San Diego's TV Girl are highly skilled practitioners of this. Their songs are eclectic but catch and danceable and are a refreshing but nostalgic play on seventies AM radio sweetness with hip-hop samples and urban back beats.

TV Girl were formed in 2012 and is made up of Trung Ngo and Brad Petering. Ngo and Petering are long-time friends who were drawn together through skateboarding and pop music while growning up in San Diego, California. Ngo formed TV Girl after the breakup of his former band Da Bears. 

Not unlike what Beck did in the nineties, TV Girl are adept at cherry-picking the juciest samples from thier widely varying tastes in music, layer them with Ngo's soothing vocals and singer/songwriter sensibilities, and turn them into something better.

TV Girl's latest EP Lonely Women is out this week and is available as a digital download through their Bandcamp page or as a limited edition cassette tate. I guarantee that somewhere on this EP you'll find your favorite summer song of 2013.

Made In America - Tony Molina, "Dissed and Dismissed" (2013)

For those of you who have a spare eleven minutes or so in your day, maybe around lunch time or just before bed tonight, you'll want to check out the full-length debut album Dissed and Dismissed from San Fransisco-based singer/guitarist Tony Molina. Molina is probably best known for his time with underground lo-fi heros Ovens but has used Sopors, Violent Change, and Caged Animals as creative outlets as well.

Dissed and Dismissed, released earlier this year on the Melters label, clocks in at just over eleven minutes. That's twelve songs, eleven minutes, I listened to the album ten times in a row while doing research for and then writing this blog post. So what do you get when each song averages less than a minute? With Molina, you get in, you get your mind blown, and then you get the hell out, that's it. Why repeat the chorus when you've heard it once already?

Molina's vocals are soothing and can hook you in the same way that J. Mascis does with Dinosaur, Jr. or Robert Pollard does with Guided By Voices (G.B.V.). And speaking of Ninties indie rock influences, he handles his guitar-work in a similar manner as Mascis with super-fuzzy riffs and screaching solos and also pays tribute to G.B.V. with his cover of "Wondering Boy Poet".

Molina's songs, while short, are well written and feel complete, and don't leave you wanting for more. He manages to get you from point A to point B in as little time as needed, without being redundant. Proving that sometimes the best gifts do come in the smallest packages.

Here is Tony Molina's Bandcamp page for a complete listen to Dissed and Dismissed:

 

Tony Molina - Don't Come Back

Made In America - The Babies

One of the best things about the do-it-yourself ethic of the independent music scene is the camaraderie that exists between musicans and their willingness to work with each other for the sake of making good music. Often this leads to great side-projects and sometimes these side-projects turn into full time bands. If not for this we would've never had bands like The Breeders or Sebadoh.

The Babies are one of these types of bands, a one time side-project turned full time band. The Babies originated at Brooklyn house party meeting between Vivian Girls guitarist Cassie Ramone and Kevin Morby, bassist for the indie-folk act Woods. Originally meant to be another creative outlet between Ramone and Morby, they would later add drummer Justin Sullivan from Bossy, release a handfull of 7" singles on various lables and then a demos E.P. for New Images Records in 2010. 2011 would find the band releasing their self-titled debut on Shrimper Records. 

Their lo-fi jangly guitar sound with call-and-respond vocals would become more refined the following year while working with Los Angeles based producer Rob Barbato (Darker My Love, The Fall, Cass McCombs) and would lead to thier most recent album Our House On The Hill, released last year on Woodsist Records.

Ramone and Morby share songwriting and vocal duties throughout the album and deftly dish out songs with swirling meloncholic peaks that leave you wonderfully dizzy at times. Our House On The Hill is indie-pop to the core but gets you there through folk and punk rock territory with scatterlings of organ, piano and saxaphone used nicely to fill in that sound.

Made In America - Shark?

At least a couple of times a week I’ll spend a few hours at night trolling the depths of the internet for new music. This both alleviates occasional boredom and feeds my obsession for ear candy. I like to think that I have a pretty good finger on the pulse of what’s out there but in all reality I don’t, not even close, and more often than not, I’ll miss out on a band with some worthy tunes. One of those bands was Brooklyn, New York’s, Shark?

I caught Shark?, yep, pun intended, as one of the two openers for post-punk icons Mission Of Burma a couple of weeks ago at The Earl in Atlanta, Georgia. They were at the tail end of a small tour with a stop through Austin at South By Southwest on their way back home. I must admit that they didn’t get to me at first. Even now I wouldn’t be able to pick out the opening song from a playlist. I only remember that it was a somewhat mono-drone, fuzzy experience and I could even be wrong about that. It was probably as awesome as the rest of the set ended up being. 

Frontman Kevin Diamond knows how to write a song with a head-bobbing groove and a hook that will land the dourest of listeners. I know, the fishing puns, can’t stop, won’t stop. While inching my way towards the front of the stage I invisioned Shark? as a rock and roll love child between The Pixies and The Strokes who received the choicest DNA from both bands. 

 

But the song that did it for me and has been on constant repeat for the last two weeks is the song Shark?, from their 2012 album True Waste. The song was the set closer and it closed the deal for me. I immediately darted for the merch table and netted a copy of the album, on cassette no less. Thankfully there was a digital download card.

So enhance your life a little and check out “You Don’t Love Me Anymore”, fall in love with this band like I did, and then listen to their latest single “California Grrls” from their upcoming album Savior on Old Flame Records, expected to be released sometime this summer.

Here's a link to Shark?s latest single "California Girls" via Soundcloud.
More Shark? music available for a listen on their Bandcamp page.